Stats That Stick: December 22, 2010

It's estimated there are 37 million Americans who have some college credits under their belt, but no diploma hanging on their wall.
–Mankato Free Press

About 13 percent of children in the United States change schools four or more times before enrolling in high school, and job loss, home foreclosures, and homelessness may be driving up student mobility as Americans move in search of employment or affordable housing. -U.S. Government Accountability Office

Twenty-eight states required high school exit exams in the 2009-10 school year (up from 26 in 2009), and public schools in those states enroll 83 percent of the nation’s students of color and more than three-quarters of the country’s low-income pupils. –Center on Education Policy

Report Round-Up

A First Look at the Common Core and College and Career Readiness from ACT. This report concludes that most students have far to go before they master the skills and knowledge outlined in the new common standards.

The American School Superintendent: 2010 Decennial Study from the American Association of School Administrators. According to this study, despite the increasingly diverse set of superintendents' responsibilities and the student achievement pressures placed upon them, the job satisfaction of superintendents remains high.

Conflicting Missions and Unclear Results: Lessons from the Education Stimulus Funds from the Bellwether Education Partners. This report questions how much schools have improved as a result of the more-than $100 billion in funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Morning Announcements: December 9, 2010

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that more than a third of California's black public high school students dropped out before graduation day and that number is on the rise.

The New York Times reports on parent reaction to “A Race to Nowhere”, a new documentary that look at the downside of childhoods spent on résumé-building.

A new report by the Arizona Board of Regents finds that four out of five Arizona high-school graduates do not have a college degree six years after graduating from high school, and just over half haven't gone to college at all.

Stats That Stick: December 8, 2010

On the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 18 percent of U.S. students failed to reach proficiency level 2, a point considered to be where "students can complete low-level reading tasks. –Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

More than one-quarter of Shanghai’s 15-year-olds demonstrated advanced mathematical thinking skills to solve complex problems, compared to an OECD average of just 3%. "  –Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

“The wealth of nations only explains about 6% of PISA performance." -Andreas Schleicher, OECD

Seventy-one percent of charter school leaders say they plan to leave within five years. -Center on Reinventing Public Education

Morning Announcements: October 25, 2010

Kansas and New Mexico are the latest states to adopt the common core state standards, bringing the total count to 40 states including Washington, DC.

According to Education Week, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council have approved plans to merge into a single organization.

The Montgomery Advertiser takes a look at the high school dropout problem in Alabama in a story and an editorial.

The Daily Press (California) covers community college attrition rates, America’s international standing in education, and solutions that could boost the global competitiveness of American students.

Report Round-Up: Friday, October 15, 2010

Finishing the First Lap: The Cost of First Year Student Attrition in America’s Four Year Colleges and Universities from the American Institutes for Research. Nationally, only about 60 percent of students graduate from four-year colleges and universities within six years. This analysis AIR vice president Mark Schneider finds that more than $9 billion was spent by state and federal governments to support students at four-year colleges and universities who left school before their sophomore year during a five-year period. 

White Paper: Next Generation Learning from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This white paper outlines how technology can help students and educators dramatically improve student outcomes, both in high schools and in postsecondary education.

Cutting to the Bone: How the Economic Crisis Affects Schools from the Center for Public Education.  According to this report, although the recession technically ended last year, budgets for LEAs nationwide will likely not reach pre-recession levels until late in the decade.

Training to Finish the Race

A new report from American Institutes for Research (AIR) examines the high costs that taxpayers and state and federal governments incur when students drop out of college. Using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) the report finds that between 2003 and 2008, states appropriated almost $6.2 billion to colleges and universities to help pay for the education of students who did not return for a second year. Additionally, states gave over $1.4 billion to students who did not return for a second year and the federal government contributed another $1.5 billion ─ mostly in the form of Pell Grants which are targeted to low-income students to increase their access to postsecondary institutions.

Finishing the First Lap: The Costs of First Year Student Attrition in America’s Four Year Colleges and Universities cites research finding that approximately 30 percent of students who start college this fall will not return to that college next year. The author, AIR vice president Mark Schneider, explains how public colleges and universities are subsidized through state appropriations and through state grants to students and that nationwide, these subsidies are close to $10,000 per student per year. Private higher education institutes are not exempt and are subsidized sometimes through state programs that support students in private schools or occasionally through state appropriations and always through the tax-exempt status of private not-for-profit institutions.

Stats That Stick: October 13, 2010

The unemployment rate for high school dropouts aged twenty-five or older soared by 10 percent in September, meanwhile, the unemployment rate for college graduates actually dropped. -U.S. Department of Labor. Read more about these numbers in Jason Amos’ latest blog post. 

Minnesota has become the 38th state to adopt the common standards, but only in English/language arts, not in math. –Education Week

More than $9 billion was spent by state and federal governments to support students at four-year colleges and universities who left school before their sophomore year during a five-year period. -American Institutes for Research. To find out more, check out this blog post.

Although the recession technically ended in 2009, district budgets are not expected to regain their pre-recession (2008) funding levels until late in the decade. –The Center for Public Education

Morning Announcements: August 11, 2010

Yesterday, President Obama signed a $26 billion measure to aid states in preventing massive layoffs of teachers and other government workers, reports the New York Times.

Big gaps in the academic performance of minority and white students in higher education are not inevitable, according to two new reports from Education Trust.

Morning Announcements: August 10, 2010

The New York Times looks into the dozens of companies that are taking advantage of the administration’s priorities to overturn failing schools and are establishing themselves as “school turnaround experts” to compete for part of the business.

For the first time, the New York City Department of Education is sending detailed reports to all of its high schools with information on how many of its students required remedial classes and numbers and how many stayed enrolled after the first semester.

The New Jersey School Boards Association finds students in more than 80 percent of New Jersey's public schools will see fewer teachers when they go back to class in September, leading to larger class sizes and reduced programs

Yesterday at the University of Austin, President Obama gave a speech on higher education and the economy. See below for an excerpt and click here to read the full transcript.

Education is the economic issue of our time. 

It’s an economic issue when the unemployment rate for folks who’ve never gone to college is almost double what it is for those who have gone to college.  Education is an economic issue when nearly eight in 10 new jobs will require workforce training or a higher education by the end of this decade.  Education is an economic issue when we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that countries that out-educate us today, they will out-compete us tomorrow.

The single most important thing we can do is to make sure we’ve got a world-class education system for everybody.  That is a prerequisite for prosperity.  It is an obligation that we have for the next generation.